Third Degree of Illumination traverses the “membrane” of the bubble awareness in an instant of choice – a choice point. I usually don’t recognize the point because it’s so fleeting – literally an instant of awareness – a sudden Aha. In that flash of presence, the default choice is to return to the familiar – the bubble. One must remain conscious to make an alternative choice to move on to Fourth Degree of Illumination Acceptance of Accountability.

That’s where a good setup comes in handy. I can use a mantra to prepare my consciousness so that when that instant of awakening comes, I stay attentive to it long enough to “move on” to full acceptance of accountability for my life. Rather than make the default choice to return to my bubble sleep.

I can use a mantra to move me closer to choice point – maybe even ring its bell more often than when I’m deeply asleep in the bubble.

Any choice has at least two options – so I devised a mantra that includes options (“or”) and assumes I’ve already selected and committed to one – the one already in my awareness. My choice mantra is a three-parter that sounds like this:

“I am experiencing EXACTLY what I WANT to experience right now or I’d be experiencing something else.”

“I’m doing exactly what I most want to do right now or I’d be doing something else.”

“I have exactly what I want to have right now or I’d have something else.”

1-2-3, BE-DO-HAVE

I especially appreciate the second mantra: “I’m doing exactly what I most want to do right now or I’d be doing something else.” I occasionally find myself doing something I don’t like to do – like facing one of my personal demons, the plumbing. Rather than choose the default – get upset and look for someone to blame – I chant my “do” mantra to myself until my body/mind settles down. Then I get to work.

You see, whether or not I get upset, the job must still get done. I’d rather do the job with a smile than a frown. Within my bubble awareness, doing (action) is key to experience. For a quick morning “wake-up call” this second mantra really sets my day’s tone.

At bedtime, I chant all three and check my body for resistance (sensation). I then acknowledge the body part experiencing a sensation that comes to my attention by including it in my mantra like this: “Thank you, [body part experiencing sensation], for doing what I most want you to do right now.”

When one adopts this mantra as their personal truth, they tend to take accountability for their life and “magical” things start to happen. For one, when I am the responsible party, I have the power to make changes – NOT because I don’t like what I have; rather, because I LOVE what I have and want to experience something ELSE I’ll love, too.

Accepting Accountability

To make a substantial change in your life, consider accepting accountability for it – acknowledge that you are, do, and have what you currently experience because you WANT TO. How you feel about what you experience is your PAYOFF for being you having that belief.

Embrace your payoff – you love it, after all – and you’ve gone to some effort and energy to achieve it. Then look into what OTHER PAYOFF you might enjoy JUST AS MUCH and begin embracing that. Change will happen! Embrace it!

You might also enjoy achieving your current payoff in a different manner. Like the kid in the sandbox making a sand castle, you can play with your design as much as you wish until you get it “just right” – that is, you experience sufficient sensational payoff. Then, simply do it again with a new design. Creation is a fluid that responds to attention!

Remember: You’re living the dream! Everything in your life is YOU being, doing, and having YOU! Let’s acknowledge it, own it, embrace it, and accept it!

I define the concept one as the single source of everything – me, my projection of reality. I also define oneness as the condition of perceiving one as an individual separate from others. One cannot be measured by dividing self against itself, yet, oneness can as perception. Oneness doesn’t create, it only perceives an illusion of divisibility and indivisibility.

In oneness, I define everything in terms of perceived constituent parts (less than one). This compared to a standard, part compared to whole, content compared to context, and etc.

Oneness provides perception of this separation by defining boundaries or limits and assigning meaning. Like a whiteboard presentation, oneness equates to the whole whiteboard while the markings I make on the board appear to be separate yet are part of the whole whiteboard presentation. Content within context by way of definition.

About Definition

Mathematically and logically speaking, more or less than one is NOT one. Just as 2 is more than and therefore not 1, and .9 is less than and therefore not 1 either, I can use one as the reference point for comparisons. That is, one can perceive separation where there is none – by definition.

To make definitions, I measure me against not me. Oneness facilitates comprehension of me as an individual separate from not me.

One cannot be measured by dividing self against itself – one divided by itself is one. Yet, one can perceive more and less than as an illusion of separation.

Through the agency of choice, I can choose to perceive one as divisible, while remaining indivisible.

I measure what I value by attaching its importance and purpose to me. I perceive what serves me by supporting my reality and what threatens it.

My assigned values support me to experience competition for my perceived benefit or threat. That which I judge as winners or losers represent me as such. My judgements are my measure of self.

Everything and Nothing

I measure everything that I perceive affects my reality. The values I create are revealed through my projections. The concept “me” competes with the concept of “not me” to sustain this illusion of separation.

The values I assign between things allows me to perceive competition in myself. By measuring the loss and gain between values allows me to judge myself as a winner or loser. Measuring what limits me allows me to perceive what I am not.

What I am capable of as one with source is unlimited creation and unlimited experience. I already know how to create through competition and limitation.

Knowing I can create my experience in a new way, I give myself permission to explore even further than before.

I live in a bubble of my own imagination in which I seek to measure everything. How is that even possible?

It seems paradoxical to measure by assigning values to what can’t be measured in value. It’s like holding conflicting realities simultaneously knowing they are an illusion. All the while defending those illusions of value and projecting them as truth.

Measuring Imagination

I like measuring, “How could I/you/they do better?” I call these “‘fonly” measurements – “If only I/you/they would have… [done something different than I/you/they did]… things would be better.” If better, how much better? It’s an impossible measurement because I’m basically measuring my limited perspective.

Is there anything in this universe that I’m aware of that does not exist as a concept within my mind? Does everything in my sensual perception belong to that subjective universe because it’s in my mind? Is objective reality a figment of my [subjective] imagination?

Perhaps creative imagination exists only where the concepts of diversity and contrast separate aspects of one concept.

I Question That

Let’s consider some useful questions in this regard:

WHAT is separate? By separate I mean perceiving a unit apart or by itself. For example, I distinguish you from me, and etc.

HOW and HOW MUCH is this separate from that? Judgments allow me to measure the poles of a concept – the maximums and minimums – and apply a comparison to those poles. “How light or dark is it?” (compared to the max/min light or dark). Perhaps what we think are opposites are actually compatible complements that validate one another as separate.

WHY is it necessary to measure separation? By measuring that which I perceive as separate, I get a nuanced experience that validates a sense of being separate.

WHO is doing the separation? When I focus on me, I can feel whole as one person and I can shift focus to separation mode. One person, many creative perspectives, where imagination is the virtual game board – life.

From the perceptual standpoint of bubble awareness, I process my experiences through a good/bad filter. That filter is my imagination, that makes it possible to attach value to experience. When I attach a positive value, I judge that experience as good. I use the same process for attaching negative value to what I judge as badexperience.

I judge an experience, then attach a perceived value to it. My level of defense for that value is equal to my own perceived value. That value represents the level of defense I need to protect my good or bad judgements. When I judge the value of an experience, rather than learning from it, I miss the learning.

These good and bad values become perceptual patterns. Like stringing beads on lines of bias, I link compatible values – good experiences with other good experiences and bad experiences with other bad experiences.

All these links of strings of beads create patterns of bias. When sufficient beads (judgements) are amassed as my truth, bias defends that truth. That bias becomes my story – my reality.

Perceptual Misunderstandings

My thoughts and feelings are the ingredients necessary to combine my truth into judgements of good and bad. These play off each other in a dance of perceptual misunderstandings: if this > then that. These patterns of false equations are really about my judgements of my experience, rather than the experiences themselves.

When I am aware of my perceptual misunderstandings of good and bad, I consciously affect the outcome of my experiences simply by being present in them.

I can use mindfulness to awaken into acceptance of full accountability for everything. Bringing together positive and negative poles into none.

or What’s in a Can’t Chant?

What are mantras? How do they work? Why would I want to do mantras? Who benefits from them?

A mantra is a statement or slogan repeated frequently – like a buzzword, catchphrase, or slogan – usually intended for personal change. Behind every mantra hides a reason for its use – a secret “why” that, when explored can reveal something useful about the one employing it.

Until recently, I had this thought that mantras must be carefully constructed, that they pertain only to positive change, and that they are always “good.” Then, I looked at the structure of mantras and realized they are simply self-talk. I often accompany self-talk with body sensations and movements – like sighs, eye casts, muscle activity, and etc.

Can’t Chants in Self-Talk

Until I recognized what I was doing to myself, I continued a program of belief-supportive self-talk – “Can’t Chants.” These mantras sound a lot like this:

I can’t even think about eating that – I’ll gain 10 pounds! (…so shame on me for even thinking!)

Sigh, I can’t do anything right. (…so I can’t have what I want.)

You know I can’t do math. (…so I can’t go to school, get the job, and whatever else I want.)

There’s always more month than money. (…so can’t support myself.)

See! I was right! (…and so can’t consider alternatives.)

You may have some more – great! Add them to the list. Maybe you, too, have codified these into “Can’t Chants” that have the format, I can’t:

Be (what I want to be)

Do (what I want to do)

Have (what I want to have)

Let’s challenge these cause-effect mantras with questions intended to stir the brain to work with us – to act.

Question Beliefs!

Unquestioned beliefs tend to continue as is (Newton’s First Law of Motion). When you notice something you want to change in your life, that something is a belief that is ripe for change.

Let’s investigate our beliefs with a series of HOW questions that challenge the doing part of our cause-effect relationship mantras. Simply ask the question and allow your body to do the answering – sensation and intensity.

In what ways is my perception wrong about this?

How does this provide feedback for my mind and heart?

In what ways does this mantra serve me?

How might I perceive myself differently?

When your old cause-effect relationship “can’t chants” change turn into consciously directed mantras, you’ll begin to feel like you’re sliding down hill instead of working to fight your way up.

After challenging our first example chant above (I can’t even think about eating that – I’ll gain 10 pounds!”), eating well and exercising may begin to feel more like they come NATURALLY and EASILY – as though on automatic. You may find that the foods that used to pack on the pounds take on a foul taste. You might experience a drop in appetite. Maybe the exercises you were doing become more enjoyable or somebody shows up in your life to make that exercise more motivational.

Remember – what, how, and why you speak to yourself as you do affects EVERYTHING because it affects WHO you are. With some conscious attention, you CAN choose your mantras.